The present disclosure relates to an incubation system and method, and particularly, to a system and method for incubating small volumes at high temperature. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an incubation system and method that permits chemical reactions in small volumes without substantial loss of reagents due to evaporation.
It is sometimes desirable to incubate liquid samples to promote a chemical reaction in the liquid. Incubation of some liquids can occur at room temperature, but more typically, incubation of liquids occurs at elevated temperatures. Some liquids to be incubated, such as glycoproteins, are available only in small amounts. Glycoproteins are sometimes incubated, for example, to remove oligosaccharides for subsequent analysis. The smaller the volume of a liquid that is incubated, the more that evaporation of the liquid is a concern because, once the reactants dry, the desired reaction usually stops. For example, a 0.5 microliter (μl) aliquot placed in a vial may evaporate to dryness in less than five minutes, leaving a dried un-reacted powder at the bottom of the vial.
Past attempts to prevent evaporation of small liquid samples in incubators include maintaining a high humidity near the incubator to retard evaporation and replenishing evaporated water from an aqueous reaction as it progresses. A high humidity can be uncomfortable for workers and ineffective in slowing evaporation. Replenishing evaporated water can be labor intensive and prone to error caused by overly diluting the reaction mixture. Thus, there is a need for an improved system and method of incubating small volumes of liquid.